On KTVU Channel 2 News Feb 23, 2015:
KTVU -
San Mateo District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe was on the Channel 2 news at 10pm on Monday night, demonstrating for the public the double standard that he observes in prosecuting crimes:
On the prosecution of Juan Lopez who ran for Sheriff against Greg Munks, and who is accused of watching a prison inmate use a cell phone, DA Wagstaffe has this to say:
"It's simply: If somebody violates the law, they have to pay the consequences."
After DA Wagstaffe's friend Sheriff Munks was busted by the FBI in an illegal brothel in an "Operation Dollhouse" investigation on potentially trafficked and underaged prostitutes, in a residential area described as "run-down apartments and homes with mattresses on the floors and the stench of cigarettes, urine and feces in the air," DA Wagstaffe had this to say:
"To those who matter, your decades of outstanding work in law enforcement are all that count and your integrity is not in the slightest marked (sic) by the modern media's efforts to make a story out of a non-story. Hard as it is to think now, remember it will by yesterday's news and irrelevant by tomorrow"
Also, don't forget the Wagstaffe Double Standard we mentioned just the other day:
If you're a county employee who engages in sex crimes -- we don't prosecute you or remove you from office (like many of the recent law enforcement officer sex crimes -- including Greg Munks) or we actually do the RIGHT thing (for the wrong reasons?) and allow an outside agency to prosecute -- as in the case of Chief Probation Officer (and longtime juvenile hall employee) Stuart Forrest's large collection of little boy child porn. (By the way -- did you know that he's not locked up anymore? Nor is he on the Megan's Law public list.)
If, on the other hand, you're a county employee who has caused some heartache with the higher ups, because you noticed and want to fix some improprieties, we throw the book at you if you may have had the opportunity to notice that a jail inmate had a cell phone.
Boy this has really backfired on Munks and Wagstaffe. They are so used to getting their own way about everything and reporters not investigating or fact checking anything they say
ReplyDeleteOver at the Atherton Almanac today, "Optics" writes:
ReplyDeleteI watched the video of Stuart Hanlon and Steve Wagstaffe being interviewed on KTVU. This is all really absurd. I'm surprised the Board of Supervisors isn't doing something about this, since it makes San Mateo County look awful. There are famous examples in history of people being arrested for engaging in political activities, but they're all from times and places that are not looked on very favorably (Soviet Union, Havel in Communist Czechoslovakia, Walesa in Communist Poland, Mandela in Apartheid South Africa, to name a few). This type of retaliation typically does not involve an admission that the arrest and prosecution is due to political activity, but rather ginned up charges, just like this.
Hey, Deep:
ReplyDeleteDid you notice Wagstaffe's below the belt, unprofessional, childish and contemptuous comment about Lopez's race for Sheriff' - that it "wasn't a serious race."
I can't believe a sitting DA would even say something like that to a reporter. He has just disrespected all of the voters who voted for Lopez and the democratic process. It also underscores further his deep ties to Munks.
Gee, Wagstaffe, if it wasn't a "serious "race then how come Munks refused to answer reporters questions about the brothel incident in the last election?
And if it wasn't a "serious race" then why did the editorial board of the Palo Alto Daily Post urge voters to write in Munks' name on the ballot because Munks refused to answer any questions?
But the Palo Alto Daily Post wrote an editorial urging people to write in Juan's name because Munks has never answered questions about Las Vegas.
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_25870116/write-juan-lopezs-name-ballot-sheriff-and-see
Wagstaffe's dismissive comment is not only inappropriate but demonstrates his ties to Munks even further.
Palo Alto Daily News Editorial: Write Juan Lopez's name on ballot for sheriff and see what happens
Has anyone else wondered why Wagstaffe- a public figure who routinely appears on television - hasn't had those god-awful, ever-growing moles removed from his face? Looks like there are a couple of new ones about to bust out. Maybe his moles are growing bigger every time he lies, like Pinocchio's nose.
ReplyDeleteToday, Wagstaffe and his sadistic crew ordered Deputy Lopez to appear at a SHOOTING range, even though Lopez is under house arrest. At this range, he was served papers.. Shades of American Sniper. Why couldn't the DA just serve Lopez papers at his home?
ReplyDeleteHey Wagstaffe: How's that little gym buddy of yours working out? You know who he is; your regular work partner with the baseball cap, the one who served time in prison for committing a horrifying felony?
Can anyone explain why a sitting DA is best buddies with a convicted felon for a crime against a woman? Why is Wagstaffe working out with this felon?
Also, according to Stogner's entry over at the Almanac, the deputies serving the papers were 90 minutes late to the meeting. I'd guess that if Lopez had left after an hour, Wags would have reported to his press lap-dogs that the Deputy had skipped out on the meeting, and that's all we'd see in the paper.
DeleteBy the way: Michael Stogner and Lamont were gracious, generous, and brave in going with Lopez to the meeting.
Wagstaffe, Munks, and their ally over at the State Bar, James Fox, former San Mateo prosecutor, all work together. James Fox brought over to the Bar an unethical former San Mateo prosecutor whose prosecutorial misconduct caused the reversal of three criminal convictions to teach state bar prosecutors, I guess, on how to lie and win a false conviction against attorneys. Fox and Wagstaffe botched the Ayres serial child sex abuse case by giving it to an unqualified prosecutor who put on such a bad case the jury hung. Fox and Wagstaffe did not prosecute a second time. A brave journalist, the victims, and the victims families followed Ayres and found out he was faking dementia. Only then was Ayres prosecuted for the second time and pled out. Then, Wagstaffe went after the journalist. He went after Robin Sax, when she was a LA prosecutor because she commented on the Ayres prosecution and how Wagstaffe and/or Fox had handled it. Wagstaffe said he would request her boss, then LA DA Steve Cooley, to refer her to the bar and have her disciplined. James Fox, Wagstaffe, and Munks are trying to disbar me because I complained in a federal pleading that I can't get protection for my client's children in San Mateo because Munks is not interested in protecting children but in exploiting them. I talked about his bust in the FBI sting in Las Vegas in 2007 in my pleading. Now, he is going after Lopez because he ran against him, and because Munks going to a house filled with sex trafficked children from Asia came out during the campaign. Free speech ain't so free in San Mateo.
ReplyDeleteHello Patricia, I'd like to put your post on my web, www.ActForUs.com
ReplyDeleteI'll phone you.
Lamont
I'll post a link to your site as well, Lamont, unless you object!
DeleteI'd like to put this at a "top of page" post on this blog a well, id you don't mind Patricia.
ReplyDeleteHi Lamont - thanks for your work too!